SAG Awards 2018 red carpet arrivals

The red carpet has finally been rolled out for the 24th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards , which will celebrate acting achievements in film and TV over the last year.

Among the stars leading the glamour on the red carpet at LA’s famous Shrine Exposition Centre was Get Out actress Allison Williams who pulled out all the style stops in a dramatic beaded silver gown, while Stranger Things actress Natalia Dyer dazzled in a pretty dress that featured a puffball skirt.

Natalia’s co-stars Gaten Matarazzo and Noah Schnapp also scrubbed up nicely in their sharp suits and bow ties.

Alison Brie added an injection of colour with her bright red off the shoulder frock, while US TV host Giuliana Rancic stunned in a slinky beaded gown.

On the night, women and their stories are likely to dominate the ceremony that aims to transform the sexual misconduct scandal sweeping the United States into a celebration of female empowerment.

The gala dinner will also be hosted by a woman – Kristen Bell, star of The Good Place TV comedy – and films by and about women are expected to fare well.

"We are acknowledging the year of the woman," said Kathy Connell, executive director of the ceremony, which takes place a day after hundreds of thousands of women turned out for marches throughout the United States.

Fox Searchlight’s dark comedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, about a furious woman seeking vengeance on male law enforcement officers for the rape and murder of her daughter, has a leading four nods, including the top prize of best cast ensemble.

A24’s mother-daughter comedy "Lady Bird" has three shots at a SAG statuette: best ensemble and for actresses Saiorse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf.

Netflix’s World War Two racial drama Mudbound, directed and written by a woman, and starring Carey Mulligan and Mary J. Blige, is also in the mix.

The SAGs are indicators of likely Oscar success because actors form the largest group of voters in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

SAG also hands out awards for television, with Big Little Lies, female wrestling drama Glow, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Crown and women’s prison series Orange is the New Black all competing.